Review of A Perfect Murder (1998) by Josh H — 14 Dec 2007

Michael stars in this sexy, stylish and very well made thriller about a filthy rich wall street titan named steven taylor played wonderful with such relish by the great michael douglas. Steven appears to be every woman's dream of a husband, handsome, rich and devoted to his wife what they dont know is that he is very manipulative, treats his wife like some trophy wife instead like a woman and has a jealous streak towards any man who looks at his wife. The amorous Gwyneth paltrow seems like the devoted wife Emily Bradford who seems in the outside to love her hsuband alot but in reality their marriage has become dull and on the brink of a divorce. They were just not meant to be. Steve taylor's career at the moment seems to be fading and going down the tubes and his wife the heiress to a 100 million dollars fortune seems to be getting mroe attention from everybody else than him. When one night on his way back home he catches a glimpse of his wife with another man heis jealousy gets the better of him. One ngiht he quietly follows his wife and her lover back to his place, once she leaves he goes up to the lovers appartment and confronts him. The lover is a con artist he pretends to be an artist drawing a few paintings and has been using his wife because of her money. Steven apporaoches the con man with an offer he couldnb't refuse. If the con man kills his wife he will pay him a million dollars. the con man accepts. The plan is that steven will leave a key to the appartment under the rug. When he leaves thursday night to a poker game, his wife will be home and for the con man to nter the appartment and kill her. But the plan backfire when steven comes home only to find his wife still alive, the police looking curiosly at him and the man dead on his floor noit the con man but someone the con man hired instead. Things get worse when the police chief begins to eye steven and the con man begins to blackmail steven either give him the money or hell send a tape of their conversation about killing his wife to the police. The con man ends up killed and in the end his wife comes to the realization that he husband has been trying to kill her.

Michael douglas has never been this good playing a very greedy, manipulative bastard trying to have his wife killed.

Gwyneth paltrow is wonderful with the material presented to her as emily bradford and great character actor and before the lords of the ring came his way Viggo mortensen is just as cunning and deliciously slimy as the con man who tries to hurt steven and seduce his wife.

Actio director tries something differrent thank his usual action stuff like the fugitive, under siege, above the law and code of silence films and brings a new twist and light to this remake of The 40's alfred hitchcock remake of dial m for murder.

Although critics called this film eman spirited I consider it a guilty pleasure.

Worth buying.